Antti Niemi: The Sharks’ sturdy, unflinching last line, and symbol of confidence going into Game 7

Antti Niemi never blinked, which is a very valuable quality for someone who purposely places himself in front of rocketing pucks and charging attackers.

You watch everything. You anticipate; you put yourself in the line of fire. And you don’t flinch or blink.
Of course, after the Sharks’ 2-1 Game 6 victory over the Kings on Sunday, the Sharks goaltender was facing only me, and a simple question:

Antti, after your rock-solid Game 6 performance, how much pressure is on you, personally, heading into Game 7?

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“A lot, for sure—both (goalies),” Niemi said with an unblinking shrug. “It’s going to be really exciting.”

If you’re a Sharks fan or his teammate, that’s exactly what you want to hear, I presume—stone cold confidence, and savvy realism.

No team wants to go into Game 7 of the Western Conference semifinals with a shaky goalie, and Niemi is displaying only the sturdiest signs as the pressure builds.

On Sunday, he stood tall during the Kings’ first-period point-blank flurrying, kept things under control, and stopped 24 of 25 shots on goal in the game.

The Kings’ only goal came on Dustin Brown’s weird-angle bank shot in the second period, and there was nothing else.

“I thought Nemo was very solid tonight,” coach Todd McLellan said. “He was a calming influence for us. Any time we made mistakes, he was there, he settled us down.”

So the Sharks march into Tuesday’s series conclusion with Niemi playing at a level at least as high as the Kings’ Jonathan Quick, last season’s Conn Smythe winner.

Niemi has won his own Stanley Cup—in 2010 with Chicago—and this year so far he has a better save percentage (.932 vs. .910) and goals-against average (1.85 vs. 2.63) than he did during the Blackhawks’ Cup run.

“You don’t get anywhere without good goaltending,” defenseman Dan Boyle said of Niemi.

“He wasn’t challenged very much through the first four games. But the last two games, they’ve been coming to the net hard and he made some huge stops when we needed him to.”

Niemi grinned and shook his head affirmatively as I asked him about back-and-forth of the first period, after the Sharks scored the first goal and the Kings were on the hard counter-attack.

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Not one, not two, but three Kings’ shots banged off the post during that spree, almost as if there was a force field behind the Sharks’ net-minder.

“Yeah,” Niemi said of the repeated clangs, “then you have good thoughts after that.”

He said it was good for him to go through that… well, good that he survived all those Kings’ shots, all coming within a few minutes, many from right up close.

“Sometimes it’s good for the goalie to get a few pucks early, to get into the game,” Niemi said.

“And they weren’t able to score, so I think for the rest of the game, it didn’t really bother me.”

That’s not quite how the Sharks wanted it, but the result turned out OK.

“I don’t know–you want to play in the other team’s end as much as possible,” Logan Couture said with a laugh when I asked him if it was good to see Niemi stop all those shots early.

“I don’t really know that we want to give up a lot of scoring chances. But when he gets comfortable, he’s tough to beat.”

That’s what the Sharks want to feel going into Game 7, that’s how they have to feel.

If they play well in front of Niemi, and get one or two past Quick, there’s every chance they can win in Los Angeles for the first time this season.

If they do, it’ll be the only one that counts, and the goaltender knows that’s his responsibility and his moment.

Niemi even got an assist on the Sharks’ second goal, in the second period when he passed it out to Scott Hannan, who helped set up TJ Galiardi’s goal.

“I’m feeling really good—of course it’s after we won the game,” Niemi said. “But I feel good and then the next game—I’ll be ready to go.”

He said that with a steady stare and no flinching—I swear, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him blink.

Niemi probably does blink—away from the ice and the questions—but it’s Game 7 now, so that might have to wait for a while.